July 26, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): Medical science has developed a new technology called ‘regenerative medicine’, which can grow new body parts. This might come as a spark of hope for many people suffering from injury or are disfigured. This technology uses human body cells to manipulate them into re-growing tissue.

Dr. Anthony Atala, who is running the ‘Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine’ in North Carolina, is trying to grow various body parts in his lab, reported ’60 Minutes’, an American television news magazine.

Dr Atala informed, “We are now working on more than 22 different organs and tissue at the institute. The possibilities of developing organs of various types are endless.” He added that the research team is working on the regenerating kidneys, bladders, lungs and more.

Atala added, “In future, a patient would probably never die for an organ failure. Lots of people die every day for lack of organs to be transplanted. With these researches, we would be able to offer replacement tissues and organs to make people live longer with the regenerated organs.”

According to Dr Atala, “The stem cells in each organ of our body parts are unique. Regeneration involves isolating these cells and those cells are multiplied till the time they are grown enough to cover a mold of any specific body part.”

Showing a bladder grown in the lab, Atala said, “In this case, we grow the three dimensional mold first, which is coated with cells. The process is done by creating one layer at a time. It is quite similar to the process of baking a layer cake.”

He added, “All the cells are aware of doing what they are supposed to do. Each cell in your body carries the genetic information to create a new you. If they are placed in the right environment, it will continue to develop into a new one.”

Atala said that the whole process of developing a body part may take six to eight weeks depending on the type of organ.